After being on furlough this past two weeks, I knew what I was coming back to today: an inbox full of emails and meetings about demonstrations disrupting the campus.
The student protests against the 32% tuition hikes by the University of California regents, and similar measures planned for the California State Universities and California Community Colleges, lessened over the winter break, but that doesn't mean they disappeared. While most of the UC staff and faculty were taking our mandatory, California-budget-balancing, furlough days, the winter break helped students get a bit more organized.
whose.university.OUR.university is one of the self-proclaimed official sites for notices, announcements, links, news and solidarity statements from students around the world. These are the first events posted for the Winter/Spring quarter:
February 15-20, "SOS - Save Our Schools" (A week of teach-in's silent protests and demonstrations.)
March 4, "National Day of Action to Defend Education" (Coincides with a national day of local actions to defend education.)
Who knows whether these events will impact my campus? Students might ignore them altogether but given the experience of the past few months, I'd say that was unlikely. Even if many students participate, not all campus 'events' need central coordination, i.e.: activating the campus Emergency Operations Center. I'm guessing these will.
The challenge for my campus EOC will be managing the resources and people involved in these events so they don't bother the resources and people who aren't. The goal is to keep the campus running as smoothly and normally as possible; allowing that part of campus not caught up in the event to attend to business and academics. All the while keeping the students safe and the campus infrastructure in one piece.
Would that all our emergencies posted their plans online! Having details about what will be happening is great. That way I can work them into my already busy schedule. Any EOC activation is a priority, of course. Even so, while I'm pulling the strings for a planned EOC activation, I still have to manage my department, complete projects, write papers, conduct training and attend meetings. I still have to attend to the business of the campus.
I won't be planning any EOC exercises, though. I have a feeling we are not going to need them.
